I like to torpedo Vettel, it’s my hobby – Kvyat

2016 Russian Grand Prix race incident suddenly change Daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen F1 careers, At the time the Russian ace Kvyat was racing for the Red Bull Racing team and Verstappen the Red Bull-junior Toro Rosso outfit, but within one week the seats were reversed in one of the most dramatic driver exchanges in Formula 1 history.

Red Bull forced to change Kvyat following the driver-error on the first lap at his home Sochi race – when the Russian twice crashed into Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and also caused damage to team-mate Daniel Ricciardo’s car.

The local hero Kvyat now preparing for his most infamous F1 moment for the Russian Grand Prix pleased that the sport is growing in popularity in his homeland and laughs off reminiscences of 2016’s Sochi incident.

“The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Russia is Sebastian,” he said this week. “As in Sebastian Vettel.

“I like to torpedo Sebastian [Vettel], it’s my hobby!” he said, deadpan, before breaking out into a smile. “Okay, c’mon, you all know I’m joking!”

Let’s get serious now… Maybe the first word that comes to mind should be ‘braking’ into Turn 1!” the Russian continues…

“This is always a special weekend for me as it’s my home race. I’ve had very good qualifyings there but I’ve never actually been able to put the perfect race together in Russia, so I’d like to achieve it this year. It’s so cool to race here, I always feel the strong support of the Russian fans and I want to make the most out of this backing and thank everyone with a strong performance!

“Since the first Russian GP back in 2014, Formula 1 in Russia has definitely grown a lot. To have our own race was a big step for the country and more and more fans attend every year, so you can see that the interest in the sport is much bigger!

“Russia is a fantastic country for winter sports and hosting the Winter Olympics was a big event. I like to watch the biathlon, skiing… There are many cool winter sports! I’m not surprised Sochi was chosen to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, the mountains here in Sochi are fantastic!

“In 2015 I qualified in P5, which was my best qualifying result with Toro Rosso. It was quite a nice moment and I have very good memories from that day. The race wasn’t great, but then the following year the situation was the opposite, with not the strongest of qualis but with a decent race. This time I’m looking to be strong on both Saturday and Sunday!”